Christopher “Kid” Reid began his career as one-half of the duo Kid ‘n Play along with Christopher “Play” Martin. While the group released popular albums 2 Hype, Kid ‘n Play’s Funhouse and Face The Nation, arguably their best known for their starring roles in New Line Cinema 1990 movie House Party, a coming of age film about two high schoolers efforts to throw the ultimate throw down. Not only would the film reach cult-classic status, but it also spawned four sequels.
In a recent conversation with HipHopDX (August), Reid explained that when they opened talks to star in House Party with New Line Cinema, they did not know that the studio was also speaking with DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince (Will Smith) about starring in the film.
“When [director] Reggie Hudlin and New Line Cinema were pursuing us to the first House Party, at the time we didn’t know they were alternately pursuing Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince,” he said exclusively to HipHopDX. “We did not know that. We found that out later on. We found out that they were trying to do it with Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince first, but there was some legal disconnect with New Line Cinema because of the Freddy Kruger movies and their record ‘Nightmare On My Street.’”
New Line Cinema sued Jive/RCA in 1989 because DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince’s song “Nightmare On My Street” infringed on the company’s copyright for Nightmare On Elm Street. Jazzy Jeff explained to DX in a separate conversation (April 2) that even though the studio sued the group, forcing them to destroy the video for the song, they still pitched Jeff and Will Smith starring roles in House Party.
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“Urban legend has it that they passed or it didn’t work out for them and we got it,” Kid continued. “Which was cool. That helped us. But then they got television stuff that we would’ve liked to have as well. Those are our homeboys. There’s a lot of truth in it, if that answers your question to your satisfaction. Guess what? There’s always these Hollywood stories about people who turn roles down and it didn’t happen. It’s funny. It’s interesting. Like, ‘Oh my god, can you imagine Jazzy Jeff and Will Smith in House Party?’ Of course you could. They would’ve been great. Not as great as Kid-N-Play, but they would’ve been great. [Laughs] They’re from Philly, we’re from New York. We’ve done a zillion shows with those guys. They’re the homies.”
Kid also discussed how he created the theme music for HBO’s political talk show Real Time With Bill Maher.
“Along with a couple of really good musical friends of mine, we created the theme music for Bill Maher’s HBO Real Time show,” he said. “We did that. He’s a good buddy of mine and I asked him he would let me and my guys have an opportunity and he did and he liked what we did. That’s where we’ve been all these many years. He’s still very happy with the theme, apparently. [Laughs] If he wasn’t he would’ve changed it by now but I think he stills like it. That’s my guy.”
